


Drift Compatible

by incurableinsanity



Series: Winterhawk Shorts [14]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pacific Rim (2013), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, M/M, Minor Natasha Romanov/Sam Wilson, Minor Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Winterhawk Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 16:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4883308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incurableinsanity/pseuds/incurableinsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If they don’t get this bomb into the breach without a kaiju, this whole fight is for nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drift Compatible

**Author's Note:**

> Winterhawk Week Day 7: Pain
> 
>  
> 
> Also available on [tumblr](http://torii-storii.tumblr.com/post/129992977754/drift-compatible)

The kaiju are tougher than usual.

Three against three but they are greatly outmatched under the water.

“Shit!” Clint feels the kaiju hit the center chest plate, and the breath flies out of him as the Jaeger falls back.

“You alright?” Bucky shouts, out of breath.

“Fine,” He calls back. “Let’s get this bastard!”

“You got it, babe,” Bucky says and Clint grins.

“ _You two done flirting yet? You’ve got a bomb to carry!”_ Tony says over comms from his and Steve’s Jaeger _Ironshield_.

“ _Tony, on the right!_ ” Steve says and the two of them are efficiently distracted.

“We need one to open the breach with,” Bucky reminds him and Clint nods. Natasha and Sam are handling the second kaiju with _Blackwing_ and look like they’re holding their own.

Their kaiju comes back and together the _Winterhawk_ ducks down under the attack. Clint extends the blade in the right arm, swinging at it.

Bucky at the same time extends his in the left arm, joining in the attack. The battle goes on for several minutes, the clock ticking down. If they don’t get this bomb into the breach without a kaiju, this whole fight is for nothing.

Clint and Bucky work perfectly in sync together. They know exactly how to move, how to attack. It should be fine.

Things are, until the kaiju pulls out _Winterhawk’s_ right arm.

The sensory overload is overwhelming.

Clint screams behind his teeth, nearly falling onto his knees. Memories fly into his head – of the day he lost Barney, of the days in the army when Bucky’s arm got blown off in the bomb, being beaten as a child, and _it hurts_.

_Bucky screaming and his arm his gone and it’s bleeding and goddammit it burns and hurts and Steve’s trying to calm him but it’s not helping-_

“Clint, baby, it’s okay. Come back to me, babe. Come on,” Bucky’s saying and Clint exhales loudly, shuddering. The memories slip away, but he still feels the pain shooting up his arm. He blinks back the tears, ignoring it for the moment.

“I’m okay,” He breathes, “let’s go.”

There’s no playing around now that Clint’s arm is gone. Bucky ramps up the attack and Clint focuses on keeping them steady on the ground.

 _Ironshield_ throws their dead kaiju.

“ _Use this and go!_ ” Steve orders, and _Winterhawk_ rolls away from the battle to grab the carcass. _Ironshield_ shoots the one still alive coming at them, taking on the battle.

“ _Go get ‘em boys,_ ” Natasha says calmly, like she and Sam aren’t fighting for their lives.

“Yes ma’am,” They both reply anyway. The water is breaching the Conn-pod and the right leg is damaged, but they’ll make it, one way or another.

And then another kaiju swims up from the breach.

“Son of a bitch,” Bucky groans, swinging out his blade. Clint snorts.

“Back thrusters, ready?” Clint reaches out. “3, 2, 1, go!”

The _Winterhawk_ surges forward, grabbing the new kaiju by the throat.

“The leak’s getting worse,” Clint notes and Bucky grunts. The kaiju uses its limbs to pierce the back of _Winterhawk_ making the leak even worse than before. Clint activates the chest thruster to kill it.

“Start the sequence!” Bucky says as they approach the breach. Clint reaches out with his left arm, his right arm still burning immensely, pressing the sequence that’ll blow the Jaeger.

“Initiated now,” Clint says, just as they enter the portal. It jolts the suit, freezing up the joints. “Evacuate.”

“Evacuating,” Bucky presses the button that indicates the escape pod. He’s lifted up as Clint presses his.

And it doesn’t work.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“ _Barton, you’re still attached,_ ” Coulson informs back at LOCCENT.

“No shit,” Clint manually ejects himself from the harness, stumbling and slipping on the incoming water.

“ _Clint, you get your ass in a pod,_ ” Bucky says, already ejecting.

“On it babe,” Clint tells him, glancing at the timer.

Seventy seconds.

Okay. Okay.

His right arm still feels useless, burning and pain shooting up it every time he moves it. He has to climb up to the escape pod itself, get in it, and launch it.

He forces himself up the nearest ladder one-handed.

“ _How’s it going Clint?_ ” Bucky asks, and Clint can hear the worry a mile away.

“It’s going,” He replies, dragging himself to the pod. God, he’s going to sleep for a week when this is over.

He flings the door open.

It’s offline. A mechanical failure. It has to be. These things are never offline.

Clint shuts his eyes. The thing’ll take too long to boot up and then eject upwards. He’s got no way out of the portal.

Still, he climbs himself in slowly, closing the door and locking it. The dark reminds him of the safe spaces of his younger days, when he would hide in the vents to avoid his father, and later, when he hid in the Dome’s vents after particularly stressful days.

“Bucky,” He says, quiet. He can hear the alarms and sirens outside, but this is quiet. Safe.

“ _Clint?_ ” And Bucky knows. Knows something’s wrong. “ _Clint what’s wrong?_ ”

“Bucky, the escape pod’s offline. I’m staying.”

“ _Clint-_ ”

“I love you,” Clint says, choking back tears. The pain of losing Bucky now is worse than his arm.

“ _God, I love you, you stupid-_ ”

The Jaeger explodes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bucky sits in the open pod, waiting for retrieval. Head in his hands, he falls apart.

He hasn’t cried since he lost his arm. Not even the horrendous pain of getting the metal arm Stark built attached and online hurt this much.

This feels like losing everything. His heart physically hurts as it pounds painfully in his chest, and he sobs into his hands.

It’s like a gaping hole, worse than the memory of Clint losing his brother – that feeling of ripping apart. This feels like shattering.

It feels like dying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He doesn’t know how long he sits there until the comm from the pod crackles.

“ _LOCCENT,_ _be advised,_ Ironshield _has retrieved the second escape pod from the_ Winterhawk.” Bucky startles. That’s Steve. Steve…Steve-

“ _Life signals?_ ” Coulson replies.

“ _Won’t know till we get him to the surface.”_ Tony says now and Bucky’s breathe hitches.

“ _We’ll wait for you at the surface,_ ” Sam says just as _Blackwings_ surfaces. It’s damaged but it’s fine for now. “ _We’ve got eyes on Bucky.”_

Bucky waves a little, but he keeps his eyes on the surface for _Ironshield._ Several minutes pass before it breaches the surface. In its hands are the second escape pod.

“Steve,” Bucky says and _Ironshield_ moves toward him, just slow enough to not risk tipping his own pod over. It leans down, gently placing the pod next to Bucky’s.

He scrambles over, rushing to unlock the door. Clint lays inside, unmoving and eyes closed. His heart sinks but he reaches out, looking for a pulse, a sign of breathing.

Just barely there. But it’s there.

“I need a medevac now,” Bucky yells just as the helos are flying overhead.

 

 

 

Clint wakes in a white room, but this isn’t heaven. He knows this room just as much as any pilot.

It’s one of the ‘Dome’s med rooms. He glances around the room. Steve’s resting in the corner of the floor, Tony curled up in his lap, head resting on Steve’s shoulder. There’s some bandages and bruises on the both of them. Sam and Natasha are curled up on the couch that definitely didn’t belong to the room.

And in the chair next to the bed is Bucky, fast asleep like the rest.

Clint feels like crying. He practically died; thought he was at death’s door. Rubbing his thumb across the back of Bucky’s hand, he looks Bucky over quietly. There’re bags under Bucky’s eyes, a few bandages back from the fight.

Bucky starts to stir, so quietly he says, “Hey.”

Bucky’s eyes open in a flash and he breathes, “Clint.”

“Not as dead as I thought,” Clint flicks a weak smile and Bucky leans down to press a bruising kiss to Clint’s lips.

“God, you stupid – I thought you died,” Bucky says. “ _Never_ do that again.”

Clint nods, “You got it.” Bucky climbs into the bed with him, encasing Clint with both his arms.

“I love you,” Bucky murmurs, “get some more rest.”

Clint hums quietly, “I love you too.”

He sleeps to the sound of Bucky’s breathing.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](http://torii-storii.tumblr.com/)


End file.
